Attention all Knifemakers!.....Product dealers/retailers and/or knife makers/sharpeners/hobbyists (etc) are not permitted to insert business related text/videos/images (company/company name/product references) and/or links into your signature line, your homepage url (within the homepage profile box), within any posts, within your avatar, nor anywhere else on this site. Market research (such as asking questions regarding or referring to products/services that you make/offer for sale or posting pictures of finished projects) is prohibited. These features are reserved for supporting vendors and hobbyists.....Also, there is no need to announce to the community that you are a knifemaker unless you're trying to sell something so please refrain from sharing.
Thanks for your co-operation!

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Without getting involved in the whole gun thing again... It could have been a knife or shovel. Doesn't change the effect of a tragic occurrence.

EDIT: Yup, completely misunderstood. This man volunteered to serve his country, was trained and asked to protect or oversee his countrymen. Regardless of peoples feelings of the war, or the reason we have snipers, he continued to re-up to serve his country, and his people. To be slain in his own back yard... well my thoughts are pretty hot! Hey deserves respect, and gratitude. He was trying to help others re-adjust, still serving as a civilian.

EDIT: Yup, completely misunderstood. This man volunteered to serve his country, was trained and asked to protect or oversee his countrymen. Regardless of peoples feelings of the war, or the reason we have snipers, he continued to re-up to serve his country, and his people. To be slain in his own back yard... well my thoughts are pretty hot! Hey deserves respect, and gratitude. He was trying to help others re-adjust, still serving as a civilian.

This is tragic. The incidence of PTSD and other effects of combat are going to be trickling in for 20 years. My gut reaction was why someone would take this person to a shooting range, but that is neither here nor there at this point. The wave of PTSD-related social problems (divorce, suicide, substance abuse and many other issues) is here and will continue to occur for years to come -- and will have to be dealt with. Chris Kyle was trying to help this situation.

k.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States...nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” -- Isaac Asimov

My cousins and friends who served all struggle from PTSD. Imagine waking up and looking out the window of your boat and seeing thousands of floating bodies and then trying to go back to sleep and hearing them bump against your boat all night long. Or imagine breaking into a hostile household which just launched a rocket at your two best friends and in the rush stepping on a 4 year old and squishing him to death under your weight. I get to hear stories like this all the time. All the dudes come back with horrific aggression. Tearing up their dogs with their own hands, thumb wrestling blowing up into full on brawl, stabbing someone with a pen for looking at them wrong. I have nothing but empathy for the fellas that do what they do over seas. I had struggled with mental disorders and have PTSD which I brought on myself from eating too much acid and seeing really twisted sh&t while I was there and flashbacks happen on the regular, but I can see it in their eyes, what they gone through and seen wasn't no game and it hurt them really really bad.

From what I have read/heard PTSD is very prevalent in regular military units but with speciallized units seals/marine recon/ berets, its is much less common. It seems the more close the community you serve with/ the more help and understanding you get both before any action and after really helps combat the development of PTSD. I am in the military but thankfully I should not have to see a type of service where I will have to deal with such, my heart goes out to those on the front lines and I can't only pray I will never be in a situation that will cause me to take another's life.

On another note, thank you for clarifying Pierre the first post was not the most clear and I thought you stood on a side of the argument that I could not empathize with. I am glad you made your meaning clear, from what I have seen/read about Kyle he was a stand up guy having just read "Service" by Marcus Lutrell where Kyle was mentioned several times it seems this is a man who served his country well, saving countless American lives. It would seem when he came home he continued to try and help his fellow service men, even in this case. It is a shame that such a man should lose his life, especially after returning home after a decorated career to what I am sure he thought was the relative safety of the United States. If I am not mistaken this is the same man that faced down two armed assailants at a gas station in Texas after being attacked for his truck, a truly special person who should be remembered for what he did for his country and fellow servicemen.